Saturday was the big day. The weather was nice, the fairgrounds were packed and Fighter Fest itself had a very good turnout. Amongst the 20 some odd bikes that entered the judged fighter only show were numerous examples of creativity, craftsmanship and unique ideas. 4 pro builders showed up with a handful of really excellent machines. Crank-it Cycles out of Woodside, NY, XPO Streetfighter out of  Garden City Park, NY, FOH Cycle Fabrication of NJ and Choprockets out of VA. Roman, owner/opperator of FOH Cycle Fab walked away with top honors for the day, winning best of show 1st and 2nd place, Trickest bits and What the Fighter. It was nice to see some of the privatiers walk away with some awards as well. Especially when they’re your buds. Our buddy Eddie, ATLStreetfighter, walked away with farthest travled. Which was won by a slim 1 mile from our other bud, and last years winner Zr0. And the best award and most deservent, at laest for effort, was out buddy Rob, for Best Rat Fighter. This was the R6 in a box we spent the evening putting together the night befor. So that was nice little pat on the back for all involved.

The rest of this segment will be of pics from Saturdays show. There’s a lot. I’ll add some small captions as I can. Enjoy.

The show tent.

Choprockets GSXR 7/11 and 7/12

FOH Cycle Fab’s Raptor 660 powered, CR125 framed motard.

FOH Cycle Fabs, Custom framed TL1000R Cafe and Vstrom Fighter.

Crank-it Cycles.

Karns Performance Turbo GSXR

The Customfighters.com booth.

XPO Streetfighter.

More Custom Fighters members that rode in for the day.

Starting a new fighter project durring the show.

Building yet another deth trap, LOL.

Other cool stuff from around the show.

TOCC had a few of their bikes on display. Their “Stunt Bike”

I dig 3 wheelers so this gets cool points just for that.

I dig the colors and the style of the paint job.

Performance Machine bikes.

Other random cool stuff.

Yup, these guys were there too…

And ofcourse every year there’s gota be some random idiot talking shit and blow’n his own horn… literaly, LOL.

Saturday night was pretty tame and relaxed compared to Firday nights insanity. A huge thanks goes out to our Buddy Nole, Catman, for hooking us up with the best ribs I have ever eaten. Unfortunatley, he couldn’t make it this year, but he put in extra work and had them shipped in from OH just for us to enjoy. So agan, big props to Nole. Sorry we missed you bud, but once again, awesome job. It wouldn’t be Fighter Fest without them.

Here’s some shots of the CF crew heading over to the steak house for dinner.

Patiently waiting.

After dinner hooliganism in a golf cart

Test fitting Stuntninja’s new CB750 Cafe project.

This deserves it’s own post. Simply for the mass of hysteria we caused, LOL.

The show got rained out by 4pm so we packed it up and headed back to the Felicia resort where Stuntninja and Fister delivered some 30 cases of beer. We were pretty set for the rest of the weekend, although we decided to make a nice dent in that this evening, LOL. The greatest part about the Felecia resort is it’s tucked away in the hills on a very quite road. It’s actually very pretty up there. But what’s even better is we typically reserve the Inn at the bottom of the hill so we can all hang out together, but there’s a huge parking lot right across the street.

It wasn’t 30 mins after we got back to the Inn before the 50’s and pocket bikes came out and everyone was hanging out, having a beer, catching up with each other and generally having a great time.

Trucker on the 50.

Trucker off the 50, LOL

Eddie, ATLStreetfighter heading out to get some Soda

Phoebe, who had never done a wheelie in her life

Trucker drag’n knee. His brand new knee brace looked like it had been through a war by weeks end, LOL

Fister in Full Leathers

Me getting back to my 50 hooligan roots, LOL

Fighter Matt, gota love the flip flops, found a bike that actually fit him

Gavin, Greencheeze, also part of the flip flop brigade.

Nailbomb rock’n stoppies.

Giving his GF some quick pointers.

Nick of Moto-Maddness.com

Pauly, actually one of the few times he actually smiled all weekend

Putting flat bars on the minifighter in the living room of the Inn. Gavin, Me, Trucker, Adam (sitting on the bike)



Adam giving it a hug for encouragement


Me, stealing parts from the Charity fighter to rig up a throttle.

Trucker, trying out the new ergo’s

Fueling it up.

I tried riding the front end of a KZ550 across the parking lot.

It didn’t work out so well

Jesse and The Big Belly Racing crew.

Wolfman, trying to encourage some guests of the wedding party scheduled that same weekend to join us.

Discouraged when they declined

In protest He hops in the Minivan and starts doing burnouts, LOL

The mini fighter didn’t want to cooperate




And when we finally got it running, it threw the chain, doh!

Eventually, it ran long enough to get some minibike drag racing in…

The CustomFighters Charity bike, chilling in the living room

Wolfman

Zr0

BBR and Trucker , the PBR twins, LOL.

Pauly doing what he does best

Adam, Mr. Custom Fighterer himself

Fister

James, Stuntninja

Wolfman and Pauly playing Beer Pong. This is a rivalry to end all rivalries, LOL.

Trucker trying to flag down cars and getting distracted by bright lights

Earlier that day I get a phone call from our buddy Rob that says he’s in White Plains, NY on his way in. He asks me how the weather there is cause he’s bringing a bike in a box and figures he’ll have to put it together in the parking lot. I say,”Parking Lot?” Fuck that, my tool box is in the living room. We’ll just roll it inside. He and his GF finaly show up around 9:30pm and he immediatly pulls the bike inside. Basicly, it was all hands on deck to get him up and running for the next day.

By 3:30am we rolled his R6 outside and cranked it up. Fired off on the second hit and he took it down the block, no lights at all, for a quick shake down. Everything ran fine, had plenty of power and it was charging. Good deal.

And this face pretty much deffines the evening, LOL.

But I think Trucker’s got the right idea.

Friday started off as a pretty chill day. People were still showing up and threats of rain started early on. The southeast crew had all made it and people from New York and New England filtered in through out the day. We decided to head over to the fairgrounds to get the booths setup and check out what was there.

Syder’s Chevy Pick up with FZR in tow and Big Belly Racings ZX10R.

Gearing up to head to the fair grounds.

Pack of Fighters heading down the freeway.

Setting up the Custom Fighters tent.

929 Adam didn’t disapoint this year. Finally geting not just 1 but 2 929’s done in time for this year and also brought a friend along for 3 outstanding 929’s.

Hang’n out with Nick and Allison of Moto-Madness.com

Nick’s freshly built GSXR750 engine. Love the side covers.

The Fighter Fest show tent.

Some of the bikes that made it for Friday.

ZX10R powered Z1000.

Karn’s Performance new GSXR750 Turbo bike. Awsome.


Mr. Dan Karns on the left.

LC Fabrications had a bunch of really clean bikes. I found myself walking by and checking them out a few times through out the weekend.

They brought along a couple rated out mini bikes that were pretty neat too.

Inside on display was this beautiful BSA A10 powered cutom.

Across from the BSA was this crazy thing. 1200 Sporster powered Street luge. Clocked at 148mph.

And how about this to for a track day rig. Toyota and Ducati got together and had this insane bike hauler built to toat around a 848 racebike.

Also on display with the toyota was this Monster with some retro touches.

It was a big week, and I’m just now getting all the pics and info together. I’m gona have to break this up into sections. Got a lot of pics and a lot of stories to go along with them. Keep checking back over the next few days as I update. There’s some cool stuff coming.

For those that are not familiar with Fighter Fest in Carlisle, PA. This is the Streetfighter event in the USA. The first and only, actually. It’s a show within a show and a great weekend all around. 2009 was the second annual event held during the CarlisleBike Fest. Fighter Fest gets it’s own segmeant of the grounds all to itself. With it’s own Fighter only judged bike show, vendor row and parking. The staff at Carlisle do a great job of making us at home there.

To start the week off the Custom Fighters Atlanta crew meet up on the north side of town to make the 2 day ride up to PA. We got an early start at a local McD’s for breakfast and headed north on our adventure. Myself, Zro-1, ATLStreetfighter, Mad Madame and Trucker took GA-400 north towards the North GA mountains. Zr0 planed out a good route that would keep the freeway riding to a minimum so we could enjoy some scenery and curvy roads. Unfortunately, I was stuck in the support truck again this year, but that’s OK. I had a comfortable trip while Trucker took care of the driving duties . not 20 minutes into the trip we hit a snag. If you ride a Fighter, you’ve obviously gotten some odd looks from passing motorists, the wondering individual outside the gas station and the local police. Well one such GA state trooper decided to inquire about the legality of ATLStreetfighter’s licence plate mount. So that put about a 15 minute hold on our travel plans, LOL. Once the officer was satisfied and let him go we continued on.

The early morning start, slight morning mishaps and the long trip ahead gave the day a slow and somber feel. The ride through the mountains was nice and easy. Some heavy traffic kept the pace steady. With about 2 hours under our belts we pulled across the boarder into Murphy, NC and started making our way towards the Smokey Mountain National Park.

First oddity caught on camera.
This over grown chopper sitting at the driveway to the local bike shop.

We made it into Murphy, no problems. We were on a mission for more mountain roads.

Let’s GO!

By mid day we made it into the Smokey Mountains. Very pretty country. We decided to make a rest stop at one of the big overlooks in the park.

ATLStreetfighters Bandit 1200

Zr0-1’s R6 Bobber.

Mad Madame’s SV650.

We took a walk down to the overlook to take in the scenery.

The view was very cool (Insert shameless plug )

But we decided to add to it a little

Your roving correspondent hard at work

Zr0, ATL and Truck adding moral support, LOL.

Second oddity caught on camera: 2 snakes get’n busy.

Just before we left the park traffic stopped. I looked around and everyone was getting out of their cars to take a pic of this moose out in the field. I decided to sit my lazy ass in the truck and get this crappy one, LOL.

Once we exited the park we wound up in a little town I like to call tourist heaven. It’s a funny little town lined with random little gift shops and and native American merchandise. It was interesting, but all the people were very nice and the place was hop’n.

The local Motel?

The fort looks like it got a face lift and some new merchandise

The town motto…

Be sure to obey the local ordinances…

Sage advice passed down through the generations…

The town mascot, actually, there were about a dozen of these funky painted bear statues all over town. Some were kinda cool and some where pretty trippy…

I wonder if Dee Schneider ever shopped here?

But I’m sure this kid does…

Trucker was also check’n out some new threads…

Weary travelers always welcome…

From there on out we hit the slab and headed for VA. We caught a little rain for the last hour of the trip. Around 10pm we grabbed a room for the night and chilled out.

The next morning we hung out for a little bit as the weather was still pretty hazy. So we grabbed some breakfast at the Omelet Shop across the street and let the weather move elsewhere. I’m guessing the Omelet Shop  is the northern equivalent to the Waffle House. It’s nice to know, even when you’re away you can have a little bit of home .

The second day was mostly Freeway until we got to PA. It was mostly an uneventful day except for ATL’s chain which became WAY loose on the ride up. Word of advise, EX ZRX drag chains are only meant to make 1/4 mile trips. This became the beginning of my working vacation, LOL.

We stopped for lunch somewhere in Maryland. Fast food became life blood on this trip. When our stomachs started rumbling we all started looking for dollar menus. It is true what they say, At BK everyone can be a king

ATL wears his lid when he talks on the phone, false sense of privacy I guess

I-81 all the way. It was a pretty day at least.

Are we there yet? Almost actually. The nice windy road down to the Felicia Resort and Spa.

And Trucker rocked his crown the whole way. LOL

That’s the trip up. Next instalment will be the actual weekend of Fighter Fest. Lots of Hooliganism, Killer bikes and good times still to come. Stay tuned.